Family Central History

FCI has grown to become a model comprehensive early education, family support organization, nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA), certified as a quality services provider by the Broward County Department of Human Services, identified as a community mental health agency by the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA), and selected as one of the first of ten pilot sites in the country to be accredited by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NAACRA).

Starting with a handful of child care centers, the scope and range of FCI’s services have increased dramatically over the last three decades to meet the complex and comprehensive needs of today’s families.

FCI has provided administrative, supervisory, technical assistance and training to more than 900 child care sites and manages more than sixty million dollars annually in federal, state, and local funds. The agency’s 400 plus employees provide a wide array of services for more than 60,000 children and their families each year.

Responding to the needs of the community over the last third of a century of service to South Florida’s most vulnerable populations, FCI’s services has included:

Services for Children and Families: · Child care placement and resource and referral assistance; · administration of child care funding for special populations such as homeless, recovering substance abusers, HIV/AIDS affected and infected populations, and children of victims of domestic violence; · information on parenting, child development and child care; · resource libraries offering free internet access, children’s literature, curriculum guides, audio-visual equipment, toys, costumes, professional journals and classroom equipment and materials; · assistance for parents enrolling children in KidCare and Medicaid Health Insurance; · monthly parent calendars with updated, developmentally appropriate, interactive activities designed to stimulate children’s cognitive/social/behavioral growth; · weekly story time reading hour open to the public that promotes language-enriched reading readiness for pre-schoolers and their families; · developmental screening of all children receiving subsidized child care; · Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY); · child care center, school · identification of primary and preventive health care needs of children and linkages and referrals to health care providers (Healthy Directions); facilitation of immunizations; and · holiday toys (collecting more than 43,000 toys) to provide children with toys to celebrate the holiday season.

Services for Vulnerable Families: · Subsidized child care; · resource and referral services at WorkForce One and Family Success one-stop sites; · comprehensive social services including crisis intervention and life-management assistance; · parenting education through the state-recognized Nurturing Curriculum; · Thanksgiving baskets of food to help struggling families celebrate the holidays; · holiday outreach to assist neediest client families with holiday wish fulfillment; and emergency food and housing assistance.

Services for Child Care Professionals: · Administrative, supervisory and technical assistance to child care centers and home child care providers; · child care center and family child care home reimbursement; · administration of federally funded Child Care Food Program; · specialized accreditation assistance, including facilitating peer support groups and on-site technical assistance for providers seeking Florida Gold Seal status; · building competencies to prepare children for success in school; · monthly directors’ networking meetings; · in-service training for child care professionals; · Child Development Associate (CDA) credentialing; · mentoring for infant/toddler teachers; · inclusion support to help child care teachers include children with special needs in traditional child care settings; · mandatory DCF state licensing training; and · ResourceMobile traveling services to family child care homes to supply developmentally appropriate materials and instruction for both formal and informal child care settings.

Special Activities: · Holiday toy drives distributing toys to local children in need annually; · tickets to children’s theatre, sports and entertainment productions; and · Adopt-A-Center Programs that matche child care centers/homes with volunteers, corporations and civic groups that provide financial and/or other in-kind support to their “adoptees.”

Through partnerships developed with local and state funders, FCI has been able to offer parents additional child care financial assistance opportunities (outside of Coalition funds) through contracts focusing on specific populations. These populations have included Entrants/Refugees; victims of domestic violence; HIV/AIDS affected or infected families; workforce initiative participants; mothers recovering from substance abuse; and homeless families.

FCI has worked collaboratively with Florida Atlantic University’s School of Nursing, the Health Planning Council, and the Health Foundation of South Florida to provide increased access to health care for children.

External recognition of the quality of services FCI provides: FCI has been recognized for its organizational strengths, capacities, and quality by many state and national bodies. Whether it was the Florida Auditor General recognizing FCI’s effective administration of its Therapeutic program; the US Congress identifying through proclamation FCI’s quality of services in the 1980’s; The Developmental Disabilities Council recognizing FCI’s model of inclusion support as one of only four model programs in the state; the Council of Accreditation awarding FCI the highest score it ever awarded a newly-accredited agency in the 1990’s; the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies’ selection of FCI to be one of only ten sites in the country to pilot and receive NACCRA accreditation in this decade; or Family Central’s designation in 2004 as a national training center for the nationally-recognized Nurturing Parenting Program; Family Central’s commitment to high standards has been affirmed.